Baby care product manufacturing may start in Coimbatore

Saudi Arabia-based Al Batterjee Group will set up a new plant in India at an estimated cost of 25 million dollar to manufacture baby care products.

"The process of identifying the location is on and most probably the new facility will come up in Coimbatore. We have planned to make the new plant operational in a year," Al Batterjee Vice-Chairman Mohammed Mazen Batterjee told reporters today after launching its 'Nunu' range of baby care products at a function here.

He said the new facility would have a production capacity of one billion packages of varying sizes per annum.

Batterjee said 'Nunu' (meaning new born in Arabic) was one of the leading baby care products in West Asia and was being sold in over 37 countries.

The products, first launched in Kerala three months ago, had received excellent response. After Bangalore and Chennai, the products would be next launched in Hyderabad before expanding to the north, he said.

He said the group is targeting a share of Rs 20 crore in the Rs 250-crore market during the first year of operations at the all India level.

Kerala-based Valy Trading Agencies Pvt Ltd is the importer and distributor of the baby care products in India.

Batterjee said the group had also planned to make a foray into IT and hospitality sectors in the metropolis with an investment of 25 million dollar each.